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Dramatic Increase In Local Drug Overdoses Over Last 12 Years

Columbus police say nine people were treated for heroin overdoses Tuesday in the Linden neighborhood, raising the possibility a new, more potent form of the drug is being sold in the city.  No deaths have been reported. Columbus Public Health officials say local drug overdoses increased by 343 percent between 2003 and last year. Most are blamed on painkillers, heroin and other opiates.  Columbus paramedics have given 14-hundred doses of the overdose antidote Naloxone to victims so far this year. This past Monday, Columbus City Council authorized spending 20 thousand dollars on more Naloxone doses.

Jim has been with WCBE since 1996. Before that he worked as a reporter at another Columbus radio station, and for three newspapers in Southwest Florida.
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